Sermons on Love

With his final talk at St John’s, Sam launches our Advent series leading into Christmas: Why We Need Christmas. This series looks at the prophet Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, as evidence of why Israel (and ourselves), need Jesus to come …

We’ve finished working through the first letter Peter wrote to early Christians in the first century, and this week, Julie brings us a “P.S.”, reminding us all that God loves us. Psalm 23 describes God as our Shepherd, and Julie looks at four things we…

When Julie was 17 years old, she lived in a Buhdist temple in Thailand. She learnt of compassion, and elements of Buhdism, as well as the power of positive thinking, and even dabbling in palm reading.
Julie’s outward picture looks pretty good: a successful career, a dynamic social life, Julie saw the world as her stomping ground, and was stomping proudly. Though her life on the surface seemed positive and strong, living in China for a time threw a number of challenges at her, and she found all those positive things she had relied on brought no relief or support. Julie found her support in a Christian family, and the way that they lived out their faith, to love God and to love others. She was stunned that they not only believed that, but lived it out!
Christianity is about more than being a good person though- it’s about a relationship with the God that loves you!

Jesus’ resurrection is real. Jesus’ resurrection is miraculous. Jesus’ resurrection is about relationship.
Tim takes a look at John 21:1-14, and the third time the resurrected Jesus appeared to his disciples. In this somewhat ordinary time, the disciples go fishing, and then have breakfast with Jesus. But this simple story shows us somewhat profoundly what the resurrection of Jesus is about.
If Jesus is really risen from the dead, and if he is really with us now, what would you say to him? Maybe you’d say, “Jesus, I do believe you rose from the dead, and I want to start following you.”, or maybe you’d say “Jesus, I don’t know if you’re real or not, but if you are, show me!”, or if you’re already a follower of Jesus, you’d ask him for help with something you’re struggling with, or you’d thank him for something great in your life.
Jesus is alive. The resurrection isn […]

In this week’s episode, Tim looks at the first point of our Church Vision, to “Love Like Jesus”. Love is thrown around in our culture all the time, and something that everyone gets on board with. Jesus shows us a much deeper way of loving though. Christian love doesn’t come naturally or easily, and involves massive personal sacrifice. God is love, God loves us, and if we love one another, God lives in us.
The bible reading for this talk is 1 John 4:7-12.

Sam concludes our Walk in the Light series, a week before Christmas. At the end of the letter of 1 John, John writes encouragements to the Christians who will receive this letter. Sam pulls out some hashtags that John might have used in his letter, if …

Delle Matthews, self-proclaimed grumpy old woman, tears apart the commercialisation of Christmas, and looks deeper into the meaning of Christmas. Our society is trying to reclaim the “true meaning of Christmas” to be to love one another, to be kind, and to give some meaningful presents. A season of love sure sounds great doesn’t it? But what is love? Where does it come from? The message of Christmas being a season of love is close to the truth, but misses a critical element, twisting the truth in subtle ways.

Continuing our Walk in the Light series, Tim looks at the three tests and measures John gives us to gauge how we’re going with walking in the light of Jesus. 1: Follow the commands of God, in the context of a relationship with him. We don’t follow God’s commands to earn his love; rather God loves us regardless, and to honour him, we strive to follow his commands. 2: How do we treat each other? With love, or with hate? Finally, 3: Do you continue to believe the truth about Jesus, that he his the son of God.
If you’re wrestling with these tests and questions, keep asking questions about them. They are of vital importance, and fundamental to the Christian faith.